I am not a politician and neither is politics my cup of tea. I would prefer to label myself as a development expert or better still, a development conscious Kenyan and an African at that. The fact that Kenya had a similar growth rate of 6% with South Korea some three decades ago brings to focus a litany of questions as to what went wrong along the way to such an extent that the country’s GDP plummeted by as low as 2% in the past decade alone. Many have been vocal enough in diagnosing Kenya’s problems, but haven’t really offered any tangible solutions to assail and cure them.
To have a sustainable and efficient government in Kenya, there should be a separation of the political from the development agenda. The Cabinet Ministers should be professionals in their particular jobs and not Members of Parliament. The Members of Parliament thus, would be left with the single task of making laws and developing their constituencies. Effective laws should also be put in place such that the electorate has the chance to vet and censor the performance and the development record of their Members of Parliament. These would empower the electorate or constituents to recall their Members of Parliament on short notice in case of a poor development record, as happened in California within the US when the Californians recalled their Governor due to poor performance and then went on to elect Arnold Schwarzenegger. This would ensure that there is a separation of interests in as far as the development prospects of the different constituencies and economy sectors are concerned; and that the Members of Parliament act responsibly in their daily public life.
If that is done, the issue of Cabinet Ministers cum MPs giving their constituencies greater priority in the implementation of development projects would therefore be curbed; while job opportunities would be provided for the many Kenyan professionals locally and abroad to help steer the country forward. It would also be a good way of curbing corruption within the country’s political hierarchy. In this regard therefore, each professional would be put in charge of his or her respective area of expertise. For example, an economist would be made a Planning Minister; a sociologist, criminologist or militarily trained person be made Security Minister; a medic be made Health Minister; a civil or mechanical engineer be given the Roads and Housing Ministry, and the like.
The aspect of having one individual hold several public posts should also be avoided. An individual should not for example, be made at one given time, the Chairman, the Director, the Executive Director among other posts in more than one public office, as is the case in Kenyan parastatals and other public offices. This too would provide opportunities for the many Kenyan professionals, most of who are in Diaspora due to lack of better pedestals to prove their mettle as well as develop their country. The rule for public posts should therefore be one-man-one-job. Indeed, there are many qualified Kenyans who can effectively deliver in these positions but have been denied the chance due to the mass political patronage and influence peddling that has often pervaded the appointment of persons to such offices in the country. Giving them a chance can in turn increase public office performance in a country that has often been nagged by the negative ‘isms’ of inter and intra-human interaction, such as tribalism and nepotism.
Kenya’s resource management in terms of taxation and tax collection should be centralized and the administrative management criteria decentralized. This would be in such a way the central government collects the taxes, which they then distribute equally to the administrative regions depending on their socio-economic needs. The administrative regions would be known as states and headed by governors who would then be charged with the implementation of the development projects within their respective areas. Under the states, there would be districts, which would be the final authority charged with the implementation of projects as well as project monitoring and accounting for the progress reports. This kind of structure would ensure that there is an equal distribution of resources throughout the country without the discrimination and sidelining of some areas; as is the case now, where the Northern Rift Valley and North Eastern are not given much consideration in the country’s development agenda and resource distribution.
For these Northern semi-arid parts of Kenya, the government should work hard to materialize their irrigation as they have a fresh water lake, Lake Turkana, and other fresh water rivers; whose quality exploitation can provide adequate food for that part of the country regularly faced with famine and unprecedented droughts. This would require the integration of the area’s populations, most of who are pastoralists, into the entire framework of the irrigation and water supply system such that their way of life will not be suddenly interrupted, but slowly and gradually dissolved for the greater good of their livelihood and the entire country’s.
Israel is basically an arid nation but has developed mechanisms of, and for fresh water harvests and irrigation to become one of the leading global suppliers of foodstuffs such as fruits and even vegetables. Northern Kenya, which has the same problem but is fortunate enough to be nearer to fresh water bodies, has much more potential of producing enough food to not only feed the country, but also to be exported to other parts of the world to earn the country foreign exchange. Nevada, a once dry and unproductive part of the United States was prioritized by the US government and developed to become one of the best tourist havens and destinations of the world. The Kenyan government can also do the same to its Northern region to make it the Las Vegas or Dubai of Africa and even the world.
That there is abundant solar and wind power in the Northern part of Kenya should in fact make the government drool for an active part in developing the region. The country’s over reliance on hydroelectric power has often brought with it industrial stagnation due to frequent power outages and the lack of sustainability in its utilization. Considering the threats to environmental biodiversity and in effect, catchments and forests, the country should divert and tap into solar and wind power, which is abundant in the Northern regions. This would ensure that there is a regular supply of energy in the nation; while at the same time, help conserve environmental biodiversity by eliminating the reliance on wood fuel (especially in rural areas) and hydroelectric power.
In the prospect of all of these, improving the security of the Northern corridor should be at the top of the development agenda. This would ensure that the development of the region goes on uninterrupted and achieves full self-sustainability. The region parse is a highly potential GDP promoter for Kenya, even though it has been regularly ignored in the numerous development deliberations of the country. The policy makers should also improve the remuneration of its most vital national security machinery, the police force. A scheme whereby the policemen and women are given tax rebates in the purchase of daily consumer products such as foods should be implemented like it is in the military. In this, a government-sanctioned canteen should be constructed in every police post and station whereby only the police personnel will be allowed to purchase commodities at subsidized rates. This along with a substantial salary increment will go a long way in reducing corruption and improving the living standards of this important security-maintaining sector. A well taken care of police force definitely spells success for the improvement and maintenance of security, a crucial requirement for the achievement of proper economic growth within the country.
There should also be a concerted effort to improve the quality of education in the institutions of higher learning in Kenya. This will be an appropriate conduit for propelling national development to greater heights: there will be more appropriate research, which will be relevant to the country’s development agenda. Currently, it is quite saddening to note that the Kenyan government has been ambitiously creating higher learning institutions, where barely any substantial research is going on due to lack of adequate facilities such as laboratories, residential rooms and even lecture halls. This has been detrimental to the aspiring researchers in the affected institutions, as many of them go through their entire study periods without the requisite practical expertise.
Rather than creating many unproductive institutions of higher learning in the country, the Kenyan government should work hard to strengthen the capacity of the existing ones, after which they then can build and empower more institutions of higher learning. There should also be prioritized funding of research projects relevant to Kenya’s socio-economic situation and development agenda. In this line, such currently moribund projects as the ‘Numerical Machines’ should be highly promoted to spur industrial growth in the country. It is with such projects for example, that the Asian Tiger economies started off their development agenda with the famous ‘Five-Year Plans’. These economic development plans have so far propelled them to the echelons of industrial growth to such an extent that many of them could now compete favorably with several developed countries.
Kenya’s main GNP contributing areas of development focus on agrohorticulture, tourism, heavy and light industries, mining, communications and transport. Investors willing and able to invest in all of these and other vital sectors should be obligated to sign agreements to the effect that they will fully process the resources in the country and only take them out as fully finished products for marketing. This will give the country a better bargaining power in the world trade arena. Investors will not be allowed to come in and perennially exploit the country’s resources, taking them abroad for further processing only to return and resell them back to the nation’s population at exorbitant prices of as much as five times their initial costs. Such an agreement will ensure the creation of jobs for Kenyans; ease the complaints of poor world market prices for its generally unprocessed products; earn Kenya good foreign exchange; and improve its balance of payment at the global trade arena.
The fact that many an old guard in Kenya have adamantly perpetuated the ‘seedy’ culture of excluding the youth from the socio-economic discussions of the country spells doom for its development aspirations. It has not been surprising then to witness the blatant neglect, mass unemployment and abject poverty facing the Kenyan youth. Many of them have therefore resorted to uncontrolled drug abuse, crime, prostitution and irresponsible sexual behavior as a result of hopelessness and idleness. Voiceless and colloquially toothless youth forums like the Kenya National Youth Parliament should be given more advocating ‘teeth’ to promote the interests of the youth in the policy debates and economic running of the country, rather than the cipher and figurehead role that they are currently forced to put up with.
However, the work done by such other organizations as the Youth Employment Summit-Kenya is commendable and should be promoted at all costs. The organization, even though still relatively young in the country, has greatly managed to drum up support for the consideration of the youth in employment opportunities. Indeed, in the year 2006, they will host a global conference, the YES International Conference where various factors affecting the youth employment possibilities and their improvement will be discussed in Nairobi, Kenya. Putting the youth at the top of the development agenda should be the Kenyan government’s first concern if they indeed care about the future heritage of the nation. This would involve the creation of intensely youth-focused Small Micro Enterprise development organizations, whose major objective would be to economically empower the youth in doing productive work in the society. The Kenyan government deserves commendation for its programs aimed at educating the poor youth. This however, still needs to be improved further with stringent rules made to deter the rich and non-deserving from getting the support through ‘backdoor’ means.
To deter corruption and wanton “plutocracy”, as has been witnessed in the recent past in Kenya; long prison sentences should be preferred on the caught suspects. At the same time, they should be made to return all the illegally acquired public funds, which should then be diverted to various development projects in the country. Those people being elected and appointed to head public offices, parastatals and other government agencies should be vetted for transparency and accountability. They should be made to account for their past lives and if not credible, be promptly censored from taking over any public office. Here, the protection and proper handling of public funds will be safeguarded since they will be left in the hands of responsible and credible leaders.
As a developing country, Kenya still has several strides to make in its development aspirations if it is to catch up with the developed world and especially the Asian Tiger economies such as China, Taiwan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. With the implementation of noble policies such as those indicated above, the economic growth of the country will take a positively upward trend. In addition, they will help alleviate its perennial food security, poverty, mass youth unemployment and underdevelopment problems.
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